Globesport.com:
TIM WHARNSBY
Globe and Mail Update
July 7, 2008 at 11:00 AM EDT
TORONTO — The Toronto Maple Leafs will announce later today that they have signed young forward Matt Stajan to a two-year deal worth $3.5-million (all currency U.S.).
With Stajan under contract that means the Leafs have 24 players signed for the upcoming season for a $51.3-million payroll. The Leafs also are close to signing28-year-old Swedish defenceman Jonas Frogren.
Stajan, 24, scored a career-high 16 goals last season and was one of only three Leafs to play in each of the 82 regular season matches. Jason Blake and Tomas Karberle were the others. Stajan’s salary of $1.75-million will make his the 11th highest paid player with Toronto, just behind Nik Antropov ($2.05-million) and ahead of Alexander Steen ($1.7-million).
Here is the Leafs payroll for 2008-09:
Player Salary Cap hit
Bryan McCabe $5,750,000
Pavel Kubina $5,000,000
Tomas Kaberle $4,250,000
Jason Blake $4,000,000
Vesa Toskala $4,000,000
Jeff Finger $3,500,000
Niklas Hagman $3,000,000
Mark Bell $2,166,700
Alexi Ponikarovsky $2,105,000
Nik Antropov $2,050,000
Matt Stajan $1,750,000
Alexander Steen $1,700,000
Nikolai Kumelin $1,487,500
Jamal Mayers $1,333,333
Carlo Colaiacovo $1,282,300
Dominic Moore $900,000
Jiri Tlusty $855,000
Mikhail Grabovski $850,000
Ian White $850,000
Anton Stralman $737,700
Curtis Joseph $700,000
Boyd Devereaux $575,000
Staffan Kronwall $487,500
John Mitchell $475,000
Tucker buyout $1,000,000
Raycroft buyout $533,333
Total payroll $51,338,366
Habster:
There’s not a lot of cap space for the potential return of Mats Sundin……..I truly doubt Sundin will return to Toronto after the way his trade deadline situation was handled. The Maple Leafs also aren’t a Stanley Cup contender let alone a playoff team so that will have a bearing on Sundin’s decision. Though we are talking about a player who has spent 13 years with the Leafs and refused to be traded to a playoff team at the trade deadline so anything is possible!!!!
